Bill 24: Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2025

This bill touches a broad range of Ontario businesses. Craft breweries and microbrewers will see reduced basic tax rates on their beer (effective August 1, 2025) and expanded eligibility rules for microbrewer status, directly lowering costs for small brewing operations producing under 49,000 hectolitres annually. Distilleries selling spirits through retail stores benefit from the basic tax rate being halved from 61.5% to 30.75%. Fuel distributors, gas stations, trucking companies, and propane dealers across Ontario are affected by the elimination of provincial tax on propane and the reduction of gasoline and clear fuel tax rates to 9 cents per litre, which changes pricing, invoicing, and remittance obligations. Investment dealers, securities firms, and commodity futures traders operating in Ontario face doubled maximum fines (up to $10 million) and five-fold increases in administrative penalties (up to $5 million) for violations, and must cooperate with new CIRO investigative powers. Ontario manufacturers who claimed the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit must now repay the credit if they dispose of, convert, or remove eligible property from Ontario within five years. Municipalities operating speed cameras or red light cameras must change vendor contracts to remove per-ticket payment arrangements and publish camera locations. Tobacco retailers and wholesalers face significantly higher maximum fines for offences involving untaxed product.